Midwestern Machine

The Midwestern Machine was a period of liberal dominance in the Midwest that existed in the United States from the late 1870s until the 1930s. The US Republican Party and Populist Party were strong in the region, with the state of Michigan being the first Republican state to exist in the region. The machine came to an end by 1932, when the US Democratic Party won all of the electoral votes of the Midwestern states during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential campaign.

History
In the aftermath of the American Civil War, the US Republican Party grew in popularity in the Midwest, especially due to government programs to make the state of Michigan more liberal. These programs originated in the 1860s, and eastern Ohio was one of the first Midwestern areas to be a solid Republican base. During the 1870s and 1880s, the rise of the suffragette movement and the reforms passed by the Republican presidents during Reconstruction led to the growth of the Republican Party in the Midwest, and the country grew more and more liberal by the end of the 1880s. By 1888, not only Michigan was a Republican base, but also Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with the 1881 World Anti-Slavery Convention and the rejection of a constituency redrawing plan in Indiana in 1882 leading to a growth in liberal loyalties. In 1888, all of those states voted for Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland, confirming the Republicans' control over the region. Support for the Republicans withered during the 20th century, however, as the Republicans moved towards conservatism and the rival US Democratic Party towards liberalism, and all of the Midwestern states voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt over Herbert Hoover in 1932.